The pulp around the hard seeds in Gleditsia fruits is sweet. Humans
can eat it, and many small mammals enjoy it. We have quite a few
honey locusts around here, and it's unusual to find fallen fruits that
have been on the ground very long. I think the critters tear them
open to get at the pulp. (In fact, when we are leading field trips,
if the Monday section finds a fruit, we pick it up and pin it to the
tree by its own thorns, so the Tuesday through Thursday sections can
see it too!)

M. Reed
College Station, Texas

David Hershey wrote:

ecologists believe many trees coevolved with megabeasts and therefore
have fruit or thorns that are anachronistic. Examples include the
large orange-like fruit of Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) and the
honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) with large thorns on its trunk and
large pods with seeds that have very hard seed coats. Supposedly,
mastodons may have eaten such fruit. The thorns would have protected
the bark.